The manufacture and packaging of smoking articles, such as cigarettes, involves the handling of very large numbers of relatively small and light weight cylindrical articles, for example, tobacco rods, filter plugs, and assembled cigarettes. Typical manufacturing and packaging systems process millions of smoking articles each day, and require high speed, precise handling of the corresponding millions of individual components that are formed, joined and packaged into the completed smoking article. The light weight and small size of the individual components, for example, tobacco rods and filter plugs, make rapid handling in large quantities difficult. The components can be easily disrupted from alignment with the flow by friction with the handling devices friction or collisions with each other, or by air movement.
The manufacturing process includes many associated processes that must be coordinated to produce the finished product. These include, for example, forming the tobacco rod, manufacturing the filter plug, attaching the filter plugs to the tobacco rods, and so on. These different processes may operate at different rates, be done at different times, or may be done in batches rather than continuously. To accommodate the different processes, the component parts are typically conveyed into and out of storage units according to the manufacturing requirements and output of the various processes.
Efficient handling of the components requires maintaining the articles in a particular orientation and alignment. Generally, cylindrical articles are arranged with their long axes transverse to the direction of flow, and are conveyed in a bulk flow, which resembles a large moving stack of logs or firewood. As the articles pass into and out of storage hoppers, or from bulk flow to narrower handling mechanisms, they roll or slide over each other. Frequently, friction between the articles, or between the articles and the conveying mechanism causes the articles to bunch or bind together and disrupt the flow. Agitation of articles in a hopper or conveyor is known to assist in moving the articles, as shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,069,930 to Atwell et al.
In addition, during handling, the light weight and elongated length of the cylindrical articles predisposes them to become crossed, or out of alignment with the flow, and to cause jams in feeding or conveying apparatuses. Jams in a conveyor or other apparatus require that the apparatus be taken out of operation while an operator clears the jam, adding unnecessary time and cost to the processes.
The present invention provides an apparatus for facilitating a flow of cylindrical articles and for arresting and removing non-aligned, or crossed, articles from the flow, thus ensuring that the articles maintain a predetermined alignment and preventing jamming of the articles in the flow.
The present invention, generally, provides an apparatus for agitating the articles, that is, applying an oscillating force to the articles, in an article flow to assist in maintaining a free flow of the articles in a selected orientation.
In addition, the present invention provides an apparatus for removing non-aligned cylindrical articles from the flow to prevent jams in the conveying and handling systems.
More particularly, the present invention provides an apparatus that is interposed in a conveying apparatus and agitates the passing articles and removes non-aligned articles from the article flow. The apparatus is particularly useful where the articles are being conveyed in a mass flow conveyor for maintaining the free flow of the articles. The apparatus is also particularly effective where articles are being conveyed from a storage device, such as a hopper or tray, to a packaging vane where the alignment of the articles is important to the operation of the packaging vanes.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, an apparatus for removing non-aligned articles comprises a plurality of elongated pins having helical threads on an outer surface. The pins are arranged in parallel and transverse to the direction of movement of the articles to form a screen through which the articles pass. The pins are mounted for eccentric rotation. The pins are rotated by conventional means, and the rotation agitates the cylindrical articles, assisting in maintaining the articles in alignment. Non-aligned articles are arrested by the pins and driven by the threads out of the conveyor, while aligned articles pass to a subsequent packaging station.
According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the agitator apparatus includes a plurality of pins having a left handed helical thread from a first end to a midpoint, and a right handed thread from a second end to the midpoint. The pins arrest non-aligned articles and the threads drive the arrested articles out of the flow. By providing the pins with left and right hand threads, the arrested articles are driven the shortest possible distance out of the flow. The pins taper continuously from a maximum diameter at the midpoint to a minimum diameter at the first and second ends to facilitate the movement of the articles along the pin. Means for rotating the pins rotates all the pins in a single direction. The pins are mounted in an assembly so that the axes of rotation of the pins are mutually parallel and spaced so that a properly aligned article, that is, a cylindrical article oriented parallel to the pins, can pass between adjacent pins.
The agitator assembly may be arranged in an article hopper, advantageously at about the middle, to provide a grid through which the articles pass through the hopper to packaging vanes which collate the articles for packing. The orientation of a long axis of the cylindrical articles in the hopper is parallel with the axis of rotation of the pins.
According to a further aspect of the invention, the axis of rotation of the pins is eccentrically located, so that the pins execute rotation about the eccentric axis, which agitates the articles.
Another aspect of the present invention provides an air jet to blow articles removed from the flow path by the helical threads to a collecting bin.
In an alternative embodiment of the invention, each pin is provided with helical threads on an outside surface that are either all left handed or all right handed. These pins are mounted so that adjacent pins have alternating thread patterns. The pins are rotated in alternating directions for arresting and removing non-aligned articles from the flow.
In another alternative embodiment, each pin is provided with helical threads on an outside surface that are the same direction, and all the pins have the same thread direction. The pins in this embodiment are rotated in the same direction for arresting and removing non-aligned articles from the flow.